Im Calling BS...

OK, I'm not a hunter, but I'm curious..... with rifled slugs, you need a smoothbore barrel, and with sabot slugs, you need a rifled barrel? Is this right?

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Generally speaking, that seems to be the unoffical rule. However, I've heard from folks who have gone both ways (sabot through smooth/rifled through rifled) who have said to have had no problems with those combinations.

I've easily shot ~10"X10" plates at 60-80 yds with rifled slugs through a smooth bore (modified choke) on my 1187 at plate shoots using Tru-Glo clip-on rifle sights. Was kneeling with the gun resting on a saw horse though. Damn thing gets hot pretty quick.

a sabot slug through a standardized choke, smooth bore barrel will have no problems firing. so you could say you can use both rifled and sabot slug effectively;

as for a rifled barrel, generally only sabot slugs should be shot through them.

then there are those "smooth" non rifled slugs that can be shot out of either type of shotgun barrel.

Ron, for best results, use "Rifled' slugs in a smoothbore, sabots in a rifled barrel.

Trust me...

Am I going to have any problems if I fire sabot through my smooth bore? I mean am I going to damage something, or am I just going to lose accuracy?

Flopsy,
You might cause some guy here to have a fit.
Just kidding,
WNTFW

Ron, for best results, use "Rifled' slugs in a smoothbore, sabots in a rifled barrel.

Trust me...

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Thanks! That's what I assumed. Doubt I'll be doing it anytime soon, I don't even have a 12 gauge anymore. Just curious.

Flopsy, no. Accuracy will degrade, perhaps greatly. Shotguns often write their own rules.

Got into a conversation about hunting with my Biology professor. I said I want to go deer huntung in the fall but want a slug barrel for my mossberg first. He said why bother, I got a doe at 80 yards last year with a smooth bore. After this statement I obviously had some questions. I asked what kind of scope he used and he said one of those low end red dots. To top it off he was also shooting offhand.

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I really don't see the big deal, 80 yards offhand, with a slug, on a deer is nothing. My 20" IC 870, with me behind it, can put slugs into a paper plate over and over and over again at 50 yards shooting quickly, and if I aim it's no issue to tag the same at 100 yards.

I think that a lot of new shooters think that if you don't have a scope on a weapon, and the most rediculously overpowered round available, that you can't hunt with it. I notice a lot of kids getting their first deer gun, and it's a .300winmag or 7mm magnum or .338 or something like that, and it will never see a set of iron sights in its existence. To top it off the new "hunter" will probably go fire 5 rounds, once a year, just to make sure his scope is sighted in. He'll do it on sandbags, like every year, then wonder why he gutshot a deer 50 yards away when he had to shoot it offhand.